As it is generally known, “cloud computing” typically refers to the use of remotely hosted resources to provide services to customers over one or more networks such as the Internet. Resources made available to customers are typically virtualized and dynamically scalable. Usually, cloud computing services may include any specific type of application. Conventionally, the software and data used to support cloud computing services are located on remote servers owned by a cloud computing service provider. Recently, use of the cloud computing service model has been growing due to the increasing availability of high bandwidth communication, making it possible to obtain response times from remotely hosted cloud-based services similar to those of services that are locally hosted.
Further, data storage demands continue to grow at a high rate. One area of growth that is testing information technology infrastructure is the billions of users and millions of applications supported in modern computing. As consumers and businesses alike adopt mobile devices, social platforms, cloud storage, and big data, the dynamics of how we store and protect data is changing as well. Some of these new platforms can be less trusted, less secure, and less resilient than the private cloud infrastructures operated by many enterprises. These private clouds have a set of hardened and reliable infrastructure services that make the data center trusted, secure and resilient.
However, there are benefits of storing, accessing, and utilizing data from the public cloud. For example, cost, flexibility, access to markets, and market trends all may make public clouds an attractive alternative for some storage needs and some applications. However, if consumers and businesses alike want to transition or migrate sensitive data, or data that must have a guaranteed level of resiliency, they need assurances that their needs will be met. Therefore, there exists a need to provide the same infrastructure services that make the private cloud trusted, secure, and resilient, in a public cloud environment.